[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Railroader 

This is basically my upgrade path. Except I have yet to have anything break.

I bought my first iMac as an "experience".

That's the one that broke for me. It lasted a good while, but the monitor eventually started going weird and then finally it stopped working and a burning smell started coming from inside. So I decided it was time to retire the good ol' iMac.

[andi*pandi]

I am still rocking a 4 year old eMac at home. I only bought that because my old iMac's died and I figured it would be better to invest the money in a new computer than try and fix the old one. Okay, fine, I also wanted to burn dvds!

I am leaning towards getting a new iMac, and passing the emac on to my son, but wait and see.

[PB2K]

1991 Commodore Amiga 500
1993 2.3mb memory upgrade for amiga
1998 imac g3 233mhz 160 mb
1999 powerbook g3 333
2000 powerbook g3 400
2001 powerbook g4 500
2004 powerbook g4 1ghz 17"
2005 powermac g4 dual 1.33ghz (upgrade)
2006 imac g5 20" 2.1ghz

i had waaaaay more computers than this, but these were my more memorable workhorses

[Arju]

Yearly give or take...

Celeron 350mhz, 128MB RAM, etc - 1 year
Dell XPST500 - 3 years
AMD Athlon 1.4Ghz Thunderbird - 2 years
Shuttle SN95G5 w/ AMD 3500+ CPU, 1GB RAM - 1 year then given to sisters
Asus V6V - 1 year then gave it to my Dad
AMD 3500X2, 2GB RAM, 900GB storage - purchased last Christmas
MacBook 2.0Ghz Core Duo - purchased last June

My desktop rig is primarily an HTPC/occasional gaming machine so I won't upgrade for at least 2 years (XBOX 360 has almost eliminated PC gaming urges). My desktops were used fairly heavily when I had them... lots of gaming, occasional photo editing and that sort of thing. Now with the MacBook I actually barely use my desktop for gaming or day to day use but heavily in terms of watching stuff from Usenet. My MacBook is my daily machine (hooked up to a 19inch LCD) so I want to keep it for over a year. I take it to every class except calculus and use it all the time. I wish I had an MBP though... the MacBook screen is too low resolution for my liking.

The Celeron and the AMD met an untimely end. A power surge killed the Celeron one night and the AMD Thunderbird died a slow death from capacitators blowing (I will never buy an Epox Motherboard again after that fiasco).

[Mastrap]

Home:

My first Mac was a classic that I snagged from work - they were being upgraded.
That got replaced by a 475, got online with CompuServe.
I then got a Performa 603 - terrible Mac, just awful. Software modem, anybody? Junk.
Upgraded to a tangerine iMac.
Went portable with a toilet seat iBook SE.
600 G3 dual USB iBook.
G4 12" PB.
G5 iMac 20"

Work: Too many to mention.

Now: 24" iMac and Macbook at home as work machines, dual G4 800 as server, MacBook Pro at work.

[Judge_Fire]

Upgrade cycles are kind of hard to keep track of, since I use stuff from work, at home and from my wife's business at home. But since everyone is posting lists, I thought I'd try to remember what I've used and was surprised myself - that's a lot of Macs :

Early
-------
Sharp MZ-721
Shard MZ-821
Amiga 1000
Amiga 500
Some leased PC for developing

At work
----------
PowerBook 150
PowerMac 7100
PowerBook Duo 270c
PowerBook 5300c
iMac rev b Lime
PowerBook 3400c
PowerBook G3 Pismo
iMac G4
PowerBook G4 1.67*
iMac Intel (Early 2006, first dev Intel replacement from Apple)*

Family + home office
-----------
Umax Mac Clone
PowerBook G3 Wall Street
iBook G3
PowerMac G4 Cube*
PowerBook G4 12"*
PC Shuttle AMD 3200+*
Mac Mini G4*
iMac G5 20"*

* used currently

Additionally, I've maintained a lab in the mid-90s with a II FX, Quadras (700,900,840av), PowerPC 6100, 7100, 8100 and more. Our labs currently have an assortment of old and new gear, so if I need raw power, it's just a trip down the corridor.


And now, after all this, I'm stuck. I'd like to buy a new machine to replace the 'office Mini' and 'gaming PC Shuttle' with one medium-sized Mac, which takes modern GPUs. Unfortunately that product doesn't exist. Maybe a Shuttle PC and force Mac OS X into it as a project.

[driven]

iMac G3 (Circa 1999 or 2000)
G4 Cube (2000)
....nada ... until
PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 (2003/2004)
PowerBook G4 (2005)

Nothing sense then.

Not too bad actually ... I've had to replace my PCs every 10-14 months ... in that vein the Macs have been cheaper. (PCs fail, can't keep up with the tasks handed to them, etc.)

[earthlings]

Originally Posted by iMOTOR 

I'm still using my 1ghz 12 inch PowerBook I bought sept. 03. I would have bought a MBP the second they came out if Apple had introduced a 12inch model. So it looks like I will keep my trusty PowerBook for as long as it lives. As for my 20inch core duo iMac, it runs Final Cut Pro pretty well so I see no reason to upgrade in the near future.

Same here, I got mine back in September '03 also, and last month I could of upgraded my pb for something new since my logic board died on me (lost everything), but I decided to pay $300 for it to be fixed.

----

Though, it would be nice to have isight built into my laptop.

But waiting for leopard and to see what they have in store for us this year!!!!!!

[Sub]

I got my 12" PowerBook 3 years ago, and my PowerMac G5 1 year ago, I don't plan on getting a new machine until at least summer 2009 or the same time 2010. I thought about getting a MacBook, but I won't want a new computer until the speeds get dramatically faster.

[the_glassman]

Every 18 months or so for me. The last update was for the need of a computer that could run Windows natively. The fact that it had a slew of cool new features was just icing on the cake.

[mac128k-1984]

I average around 3 to 5 years lately its been closer to the 3 year itch. Now that I have two little ones, the 3 year itch is going to be stretched to a 5 years. I've faired pretty well lately in selling my older machines either on ebay or craiglist and I generally pay cash for the computers. Now that my discretionary cash has disappeared (read twins) I'm going to be living with my MacPro for a while.

[TailsToo]

Apple II Computers
Apple //c - 1984
Apple //gs - 1987

Early Macintosh Computers
Mac SE -1990
Mac IIsi - 1991
PowerBook 180 - 1993
Quadra 605 - 1995 (Free - Won from Apple)
PowerBook Duo 270c - 1995 (Sold in late 1995 to pay for college)

Dark ages with No Mac - 1996 to 1999

Newer Macintosh Computers
iBook (300mhz G3)- 1999
iMac SE (400mhz G3) - 2000 (Repaired fire damaged unit)
iBook - 2003 (Dual USB, 500mhz G3)
PowerBook G4 (1GHz) - 2003
PowerBook G4 (1.67GHz) - early 2005
PowerMac G5 (1.8GHz, Single Processor) - late 2005
MacBook Pro (C2D, 2.33GHz, current computer) - late 2006

[Person Man]

I started out with an Apple IIc in 1984 when I was 9 years old. Then I got an Apple IIgs in 1987 at Christmas when I was 12.

I used the IIgs as my main computer for 9 years when I got my Power Macintosh 7600 in 1996. I used that until 2001, when I got a QuickSilver 867 MHz. (Along the way I got a G3 Lombard PowerBook in 1999). Then I got a Titanium PBG4 in 2003, and a Power Mac G5 in 2004.

So, I replace my computers, on average, every 4-5 years. (With the exception of my work computer. I replaced my Dell with a C2D iMac after 1.5 years... I expect to have the Mac for a long time though).

My next purchase will be some type of MacBook Pro before 2007 is out (My PowerBook will probably be about 4 1/2 years old by then).

[dcmacdaddy]

It used to be every 15 months or so but it was getting crazy expensive and I was not getting sufficient return when I sold them used. For the past three years it has been one every 18 months and they have both been laptops and both been re-furbished models. I am due for another one myself--I have the 1.5GHz G4 PowerBook--but I can't bring myself to spend the money right now; I am really trying to save for a down-payment on a house. So, it will be 2008 for me at least before I get a new computer.

I really (almost pathologically so) want a MacBook Pro but my Mom needs a new Mac to replace her old eMac and her birthday is coming up. So, she is probably going to get a refurbished MacBook Pro with 20" Cinema Display to replace her eMac and 14" iBook. She is traveling a lot more now that she is retired, and a widow, so I am getting her one laptop to replace both her desktop and laptop. Her old eMac will go to the grandparents to replace their iMac DV 400--my first iMac, sigh--and the iBook will go someplace as a donation.